A family from Belleville, Michigan came home the other night to find their living room full of smoke. The culprit? One of their Wii Remotes had quite literally exploded.

It's lucky nobody had been home when it blew, because when it did pieces of the Remote flew across the room and tore holes in stuff like so much white plastic shrapnel.

So what can make a Wii Remote explode? The family didn't read their Wii manual front-to-back, meaning they missed the part where Nintendo specifically warns against putting lithium batteries in a Wii Remote. So they put a lithium battery in the Wii Remote.

While the local news report tries its best to turn this into a NINTENDO NEEDS TO DO MORE piece, the mother actually sounds quite reasonable, warning other parents to read the fine print on their kid's toys.

Nintendo has offered to replace the family's damaged equipment "at a discounted price".